Terry R. Bankert specializes in Michigan Family Law and Domestic Mediation.If you have issues concerning divorce, legal separation, Annulment, Custody changes, parenting time, child support, spousal support and grand parents rights please call and make an appointment. 1-810-235-1970. You are invited to sign up for our regular Family Law Newsletter

Sunday, May 16, 2010

“My boyfriend gave me a promise ring on March 14th,2010 told me that the engagenent ring will come after. Now he wants the promise ring back, what are my rights and do i have yo give it back or was it a gift? He said I aint allowed to move any of me or my childs things out of here till i do. What do I do now?”

The ring is a conditional gift. It is not yours.

Some sources say you must give it back. “The engagement period is often a time of euphoria and bliss as two individuals build a relationship and contemplate one of the most important institutions in human society - marriage. ... A majority of jurisdictions, to include Michigan Meyer v. Mitnick, 244 Mich. App. 697 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001),
hold that where an engagement gift is given to a donee in contemplation of marriage, although absolute in form, it is conditional; the donor is entitled to return of the engagement gift upon breach of the engagement. ... Prior to the surge of modern "no-fault" divorce proceedings, a majority of jurisdictions held or recognized that where the donor breaks the engagement, the donee has the right to possess the engagement ring or to recover its value. ... The donor had filed a complaint in replevin alleging a conditional gift of a diamond engagement ring to the donee, where the donor had terminated the engagement one year later. ... While a majority of lower courts recognize that where the donor breaks the engagement, the donee has the right to possess the engagement ring, it is important to recognize that these decisions predate the courts' extension of the policy that removes fault-finding from the personal-relationship dynamics of marriage and divorce to encompass that of broken engagements. ... “